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Determination of two‐dimensional laboratory‐scale dispersivities
Author(s) -
Kim SongBae,
Jo KyuHyeok,
Kim DongJu,
Jury William A.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/hyp.1475
Subject(s) - plume , tracer , aquifer , transverse plane , mechanics , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental science , panache , flow (mathematics) , geology , soil science , materials science , groundwater , geotechnical engineering , meteorology , physics , structural engineering , engineering , nuclear physics
A tracer test was conducted in a laboratory chamber representing a two‐dimensional aquifer to investigate the longitudinal dispersivity (α L ) and the ratio (α T /α L ) of transverse to longitudinal dispersivity of sandy aquifer materials. Dispersive parameters were obtained by matching the observed chloride plumes at 9 hours and 16 hours after tracer injection with those simulated by a flow and transport model. The best match was found for α L = 0·2 − 0·25 cm and α T /α L = 0·2. The ratio of α T /α L = 0·2 was within the range of laboratory values reported in the literature. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the tracer plume concentration and shape were more sensitive to variations in longitudinal dispersivity than to the ratio of transverse to longitudinal dispersivity. This result contrasted with findings of others, showing that the dispersivity ratio greatly affects contaminant plume shape. However, our experimental boundary conditions restricted expansion of the plume normal to the direction of flow and thus affected the parameter estimation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.